in an attempt to eat better...

... I went shopping for vegetables at Feira do Pacaembu this past Saturday.

(image via here)

Feira do Pacaembu (or Pacaembu fair, after the neighbourhood) is a farmer's market, located on the parking lot of the Pacaembu football stadium. You can get fresh vegetables, fruit, spices, fish and meat products on Thursdays and Saturdays.

Yet it is particularly famous for selling some of the best pastel in São Paulo.

(image via estadao.com.br)

The traditional pastel filling is either meat or cheese, but the pastel vendours in the market also offer some innovative fillings, such as carne-seca (a kind of dried meat) and catupiry cheese. I recommend getting the traditional cheese pastel. The lines are long, specially if you go on Saturday, but I promise you shall not be disappointed.

However, as I am forbidden all fried foods due to a mysterious food allergy, I stayed away from the pastel and concentrated on buying my vegetables. I bought zucchinis, green beans, carrots, tomatoes, as well as peaches, bananas, grapes and strawberries. Definitely more fresh food than I have consumed in my lifetime.

As much as I am bored to death by all things organic, shopping for vegetables at Feira do Pacaembu made it a much more pleasant experience. It's great to be able to buy things in the open air, talk to the vendours, and kind of make a day of it (or rather, a morning).

At the very least, it made vegetables seem much more glamorous to me.